


She Doesn't Even Go Here

by localspacelesbian



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Mild Language, Post-Costume Day (Andi Mack), T. J. Kippen & Amber Are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 10:18:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19105114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Amber finds out exactly what Kira did to her baby brother.





	She Doesn't Even Go Here

It had been weeks since Costume Day, since the last time TJ and Cyrus had talked. TJ wanted to talk to Cyrus, but he didn’t know what to say. For the past few weeks, he had basically just been going through the motions: school, work, basketball, not talking to anyone unless he had to. He felt himself slipping back into his ‘scary basketball guy’ persona, and he knew that he shouldn’t, but he didn’t know what else to do; it was the only way he felt safe. He had to be careful not piss off Kira or to let slip to anyone else what he never should have let her find out about him.

Amber had been trying to get him to tell her what happened ever since he had gotten home from school that day, and she could instantly tell something was wrong. He had managed to avoid her questions until the day before, when she had heard Cyrus’s side of the story and burst into his room to yell at him. He eventually broke down and told her everything. He saw a lot of different emotions flicker across her face, but he couldn’t name most of them. She just hugged him, which the two didn’t do very often. Neither of them said much after that. Though they were both working on it, neither of them were very good at talking about emotions. They ended up just watching Netflix together quietly until they fell asleep. They hadn’t mentioned it again this morning, but when she offered to walk with him to school that morning, he became suspicious. She didn’t say much other than suggesting that he talk to Cyrus about it. He didn’t dignify her suggestion with a response because he knew she was right but didn’t want to admit it.

He was thinking about whether or not he should take her advice when he realised that they were already at the middle school and Amber was still walking toward the school with him instead of waving goodbye and continuing on toward the high school.  _ Shit, she was definitely up to something. _

He looked over at her and saw that she had a terrifying and angry look on her face that TJ had only seen a couple times before. He looked to see what she was looking at and saw Kira standing there talking to a couple of the boys from the basketball team.  _ Oh no. _ She was walking directly toward them, and he had no choice but to follow.

One of his teammates saw them approaching and spoke up when they got close. “Amber? What are you doing here?”

The other one joked, “She doesn’t even go here.”

Amber just glared at him until the smile dropped from his face and he looked away.

His teammates looked varying degrees of confused and concerned, but Kira just looked bored. She looked at TJ and asked, “Who’s this?”

Before he could answer her, Amber interrupted. “I’m his sister. And you’re Kira, I take it?” Kira just nodded. Amber smiled at her, but it was the kind of smile that was more than slightly terrifying. She took a step closer to Kira so she was right in her face and crossed her arms.

Before she could say anything, TJ tried to stop her. “Amber, please don’t do this. You’re going to make things worse.” He tried not to look at his teammates; he could only imagine what they must be thinking. He’s not stupid; he knows they must have guessed that something was going on between him and Cyrus and Kira, but he didn’t really need his sister confirming their suspicions. 

Amber looked at him and her face softened for a second. “Sorry Teej, but I’m not about to stand back quietly and let a bully like this manipulate my baby brother anymore.” She looked back at Kira and the scary ‘mean girl’ look was back. “I’m only going to say this once, so you better listen to me. TJ, Cyrus, and all of their friends are off-limits. If you so much as breathe in their direction, you will regret it. Trust me, I know exactly what you have on TJ, and it is not nearly as bad as you seem to think it is; I can and will find much worse on you. I know exactly how mean girls like you work because I was that girl once. Even on my worst days, I never would have done something as awful as what you did. You hurt people because you’re insecure. You may be too much of a coward to follow through with any threats you made, but I’m not.” Kira started to try to interrupt, but Amber put up a hand to stop her. “Don’t. You know exactly what you did. I hope that one day you grow up and realise why it was wrong, but until then, stay away from my family.” She took a step back and held her hand out to TJ. “Come on, Teej.”

He tried to ask her where they were going, but she just gave him a Look, and he shut up and followed her. He felt everyone’s eyes on him, and when he realised where they were headed, he wanted nothing more than to run away and hide, but he knew he couldn’t. Amber led him directly to the table where Cyrus and his friends were sitting and watching them.

Amber ignored everyone else and spoke directly to Cyrus. “Come on, Cy.” TJ tried to avoid looking Cyrus in the eye. He didn’t see the look Amber was giving Cyrus, but he could picture it in his head. After a second, Cyrus got up and followed them. It was a little scary how easily Amber could get people to listen to her when she wanted to.

They followed her away from the school. Cyrus tried to ask her where they were going, but she didn’t answer. They ended up in a relatively secluded area on the other side of the school. She pointed to the ground near a tree. “Sit.” TJ raised his eyebrow at her, but Cyrus listened, so he followed suit, sitting next to him, but not as close as he would have a few weeks ago. Amber also sat down, so they were in a little circle.

“Are we going to be a late to class?” Cyrus asked anxiously.

“Don’t worry about it.” Cyrus didn’t seem happy about that answer, but he didn’t say anything else. TJ didn’t really care if he was late to his next class; it was just history, which he was pretty good at, so he could stand to miss a little bit of it. “You two are going to sit here until you talk to each other and work out your problems.” TJ and Cyrus looked at each other. It was the first time he had looked at Cyrus this closely in weeks, and it hurt seeing how hurt and confused Cyrus looked. He quickly looked back at Amber, who was looking at him. “Look, this may be almost entirely Kira’s fault, but you still fucked up big time, and Cyrus deserves an apology.” Amber looked over at Cyrus, who now looked mostly just confused. “And I know TJ fucked up, but I also know why he did it, and I think you should hear him out.” TJ felt Cyrus look at him, and it took everything in him to not look back at him. Amber looked between the two of them. “Well?”

TJ realised that they were both waiting for him to speak. He had been wanting to talk to Cyrus, but this wasn’t exactly how he was planning on doing it, not that he had a plan at all.  _ Oh well, no time like the present or whatever. _ He looked at Amber. “I don’t think I can do this with you sitting there watching us.”

Amber rolled her eyes but said, “Fine,” and got with a sigh, walking a little ways away and putting earbuds in. ‘Happy?’ she mouthed at him. Once he was satisfied (even though he knew she was probably still going to listen), he turned to Cyrus, who was still waiting for him to say something.

He forced himself to look into his eyes. He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Cyrus.” It didn’t feel like enough, but he didn’t know what else to say.

“I want to forgive you. I want to just take Amber’s word that you had a good reason and that it’s all somehow Kira’s fault. But I’m just so confused. What could Kira have possibly done that made you bail on a costume that was your idea. That made you bail on me without even telling me? ‘Cause before today, the only reasons I could think of were either you like Kira or you don’t like me. But then That happened.” Cyrus gestured vaguely toward Amber. “And now I’m more confused than ever. You shouldn’t have to tell me what happened between you and Kira, but not knowing is killing me.” Cyrus finally broke eye contact and looked down at his lap.

“Cyrus.” TJ spoke softly, his voice breaking slightly. Cyrus looked back up. “First of all, I want to make it clear that I could never not like you. And I definitely don’t like Kira.” TJ was kind of horrified at the very concept.

Cyrus gave a sort of half-smile. “Yeah, I guess Amber made that pretty clear.”

TJ tried to smile back, but it fell and he looked down as he realised that he was going to have to tell Cyrus what Kira had found out about him, or at least part of it. And okay, he didn’t  _ have _ to tell him, but he deserved to know. He thought back to every interaction he had had with Cyrus in the past to try to gauge what his reaction would be. He was pretty sure that he would remember if the specific issue of queerness had ever come up, and he was pretty sure it hadn’t, so he had no idea how Cyrus felt about it. He was generally pretty supportive about everything else, though, so no matter how hard the paranoid part of his brain tried, it was hard to imagine Cyrus holding any kind of prejudice.

He took a deep breath and tried to look back up at Cyrus, but he couldn’t bring himself to. “I’m gay.” He spoke into his lap, and so softly that, were it not for Cyrus’s tiny gasp, he would have been sure he hadn’t been heard.

“TJ.” He felt Cyrus grab his hand, and that made him finally look up. To his surprise, Cyrus was smiling, and he was pretty sure there were tears in his eyes. “I’m trying to think of something helpful and supportive to say, but honestly the only thing coming to my mind right now is ‘same.’” It took a second for TJ to process that, and when he did he started laughing. And then, suddenly, they were both laughing and crying, and Cyrus leaned over and hugged him. There was a part of his brain that was excited because maybe that meant he had a chance, but he decided to push that thought down for now. He felt too many emotions to name, but the main one was relief.

“Wait.” Cyrus pulled back and put his hands on TJ’s arms. “I’m really happy for you for coming out to me and all, but what does this have to do wi- Oh.” Cyrus looked horrified as he seemed to realise something, and TJ looked back down at his lap. “TJ, please tell me I’m wrong.”

TJ sighed. He really wished he could. He nodded. “Kira, uh, she found out. She said she’d tell people if I didn’t do the costume with her. And she’s been holding it over me ever since then. And like, I know that there’s nothing wrong with being gay, but that doesn’t mean I want everyone to know, y’know? And I was just so scared, so I just went along with everything. God, I’m such a coward. I’m so sorry.”

“TJ, look at me.” He did. “You are not a coward. Anyone in your position would have been scared. And of course I forgive you for the whole costume day thing. I wish you had talked to me about all of this sooner, but I get why it was hard. What Kira did was so far beyond not ok. And whatever happens, I’m going to be here for you.”

TJ smiled at that and hugged him again. He didn’t know how to put his feelings into words, so he hoped that Cyrus would get it from the hug.

“So, are you two like good now?” TJ looked up and saw Amber standing above them, with only one earbud in and her phone in her hand.

He looked over at Cyrus who nodded and said, “Yeah, I think we’re good.”

“Good. Watching you two mope over each other was getting old,” she said as she wrapped up her earbuds and put them and her phone in her pocket. She reached out her hands to help them both up. “Come on. Let’s go find a bathroom, so I can help you two look less like you’ve just been crying before you go to class.” They all smiled, and she put her arms around both of them as they walked inside together.

When they got inside, they saw Dr. Metcalf standing just inside the door with his arms crossed. The smiles dropped from their faces pretty quickly. He just pointed to his office and the three walked in and sat down. He followed them, sitting at his desk.

He looked at Amber first. “Amber Kippen, right?” She nodded. “Kira told me that you threatened her, and I have two other students backing her up. What do you have to say for yourself?”  
“I was defending my brother.” She spoke with confidence TJ didn’t feel.

“From what?”

“It’s not my place to say.”

Metcalf narrowed his eyes at her. “Can you at least tell me why you made these two late to class?”

“They haven’t spoken in weeks. Someone had to do something. And we were about to head to class. They didn’t miss that much.”

“And that conversation couldn’t have happened outside of school hours?” Amber just shrugged. Metcalf sighed and looked at Cyrus and then TJ. “Perhaps you can answer my previous question, TJ? What happened that caused your sister here to come all the way down to the middle school to ‘defend’ you.” He used air quotes around the word ‘defend’.

TJ shrugged. He really didn’t want to answer that question, but he also didn’t want his sister to get in trouble on his behalf. He looked around the room. He noticed a ‘safe space’ poster on the wall behind Metcalf’s desk.  _ Yeah, right, like I believe that. _ TJ looked at Cyrus who smiled and nodded reassuringly.  _ Damn Cyrus, making me a better person who ‘respects authority’ or whatever. _ He sighed. “If I tell you, you aren’t going to like call my parents or anything, right?”

Metcalf seemed surprised. “Well, that would depend on what it is. There are some things that I would have to tell your parents, but you don’t have to be afraid to tell me anything. My students’ safety is my priority.”

TJ looked at Cyrus again, who was still looking at him reassuringly, and then at Amber, who looked ready to fight for him if it came down to that. “Kira threatened to out me if I didn’t do what she wanted.”

Metcalf looked surprised, and then angry for a second, but that was gone before TJ could be sure it was real and replaced by his normal neutral expression. “Well, first of all, I want to reassure you that I will certainly not tell your parents, or anyone else, about this if you don’t want me too,” TJ let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding. “How long has this been going on?”

TJ shrugged. “Since Costume Day.”

“I see. Well, this is very serious, and I will certainly be talking to Kira about this.” TJ nodded. He didn’t really want a big deal to be made of this, but maybe it would make her stop? Or maybe it would make things worse? “I want you to know that I will handle this situation very carefully. I know what I’m doing, and you can trust me. Believe me, I understand exactly what you’re going through.” It took TJ a second to realise what he meant by that, but when he did, he looked up at Metcalf in shock. Metcalf just nodded at him and then looked back to Amber before speaking again. “Amber, I certainly understand why you did what you did, but there are better ways to handle situations like this.” Amber nodded. “Unfortunately, as you don’t go here, there is very little I can do. However, I have already spoken to your principal, and she is expecting to see you in her office.” He gestured toward the door, and Amber took that as her cue to stand up and leave.

She ruffled TJ’s hair and said, “I guess I’ll see you at home then, Teej.” Then she waved at Cyrus and said, “Take care of him for me.” TJ rolled his eyes, but Cyrus nodded very seriously. Then, she was gone, and the two boys turned back to their principal.

Metcalf typed something on his computer quickly and then turned back to them. “For being late, you will both be be serving lunch detention in here with me today. Got it?” They both nodded. “Good. Now get to class.” He waved them out of the room.

As soon as they were out in the hallway, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, that was…” TJ didn’t know how to describe what had just happened.

“A lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on, we should get to class.”

TJ followed Cyrus to each of their lockers to get their stuff, and then they both stopped near the door to Cyrus’s classroom.

“I was serious before, when I said that I’m going to be here for you, whatever happens with Kira. You know that, right?”

TJ nodded, and then they hugged again. “Thank you, Cyrus.”

Cyrus just smiled at him and walked over and pulled open the door. As he walked in, he paused for a second to look back at TJ.

TJ felt his breath catch in his throat, and he stood there for a second too long before heading off to his own class.


End file.
